Ruslan Balbec
The majority of Ukrainians actually recognized the Crimea part of Russia, but are afraid to speak openly about it, said the Deputy of the state Duma Ruslan Balbec. This opinion he expressed in an interview with “Tape.ru” on Tuesday, January 24, commenting on the story of the map of the Kiev printing press, which marked the Peninsula as Russian territory.
“And although the version of the map will be reprinted, the silence of the majority of Ukrainians confirmed that the position of the Kiev authorities and the thoughts of the population go in diametrically opposite directions,” — said the MP.
According to him, the map with Russian Crimea angered only “insane nationalists and officials of the small manner”. The rest of Ukrainians called the Russian Peninsula to avoid reprisals from authorities, said the MP, who was elected to the lower house of the Parliament of the Crimea.
“The impression that [Ukrainian President] Petro Poroshenko with different parties to fill up the so-called messages about the change of policy in relation to the Crimea. We saw this in the Western media, and on video, and now in Ukraine openly say, “Peter, you’re wrong”,” — summed up Balbec.
On 23 January it was reported that the Kyiv printing house released the educational geographical games for children, maps of which Crimea is part of Russia. In the printing house said that the mistake was made by the designer.
In late September the national Council of Ukraine on television and radio broadcasting banned broadcasting in the country children’s channel “Carousel” that in transfer “good morning, kids” was shown a map with Russian Crimea.
Crimea and Sevastopol became part of Russia in March 2014 following a referendum. Kiev considers this territory temporarily occupied and does not recognize the industry. Moscow considers the question of Crimean status closed.